The EU and the Arabs

Marc's latest installment of "The EU and the Arabs" is up, over at American Future. It's the most focused and detailed of the series, as it homes in on the events of the 1973 war. Go and read! It's good stuff, and even if you know this era well, I bet you'll learn some things. And stop back again and keep an eye on his comments section. If you're willing to swing the sword of rhetoric, and even swat a troll or two, you'll get your chance. There's bound to be heated discussion, since the post features quotes like this, from Kissinger:

France was in the forefront of those of our allies who were exploiting the embargo to line up bilateral deals with the producers – mostly arms for oil. And it was France that acted as the spearhead of the so-called European-Arab dialogue, the European alternative to our Middle East diplomacy, whose rationale – never made explicit – could only be dissociation from the United States.

Together with other leaders who favored the European-Arab dialogue, the French strenuously denied any political objective or exclusionary motives. But the secrecy with which the proposed initiative was prepared, the refusal to brief us about its contents, argued otherwise.